​This summer brought many changes to our household and the way we do business.

Pregnancy Update

As you know by now, I am 15 weeks pregnant with our 3rd Stu. We could not be more excited about it (extra credit for you if you read that like Chandler Bing). The first trimester was rough. Really difficult. I kid you not, I spent almost the entire month of June in bed. My body was utterly drained. I have never experienced that kind of exhaustion. I survived on saltines and peppermint candies and naps. My husband picked up the household slack (he's never more attractive than when he's doing laundry, cleaning the house, and cooking for the kids). The monsters didn't seem to mind my daily afternoon snoozing... I think Riley was just happy I wasn't yelling at him to put down the iPad.

I am happy to be back in the land of the living.

New School Year

This is a sponsored post. Rest assured though, all the opinions are mine.

My daughter loves being in the kitchen. This interest started when we first began homeschooling... I used cooking as a means to make science and math more interesting. Since then, she has assisted me with dinners and lunches countless times.

But now, her absolute favorite recipe book is Cook by Colours. As it says on the cover, it's targeted toward a younger demographic* (Reagan is 9). But the food is delicious, and that is good enough reason to continue using this book.

I've been toying with this post for a while. Mostly in my head. Not sure how to write it. Not sure what to share.

The beginning of school is creeping up. As I have told you, we are sending the monsters back to school after having spent some time doing the whole homeschool thing. If you spoke to me personally after wepulled Reagan out last October, you probably got an earful about how horrible our experience was at the last school. You probably heard me cry, you listened to me say bad things about the teachers and administration, you encouraged me and told me I was doing the right thing. And for that, I thank you.

I have bullying on the brain though. I can't help but worry a little about this next school. What will these kids be like? Will my kids feel comfortable and safe? Will it take long to find that one (or two) really kind, honest friend?

Of course I am keeping my apprehension and nerves to myself. There is NO way I would express any of this to the kids. I do not want to plant any negative seeds. Only seeds of excitement and hope.

But, bullying pops up now and again. We see the anti-bully stuff on Disney channel. And elsewhere. I was thinking of our experience (both as a parent and former teacher), and I have some thoughts to share:

I'm so happy to tell you that both kids will be going back to a brick-and-mortar school in a few weeks.

As you know, we pulled Reagan out last October. And we pulled Riley out when we moved in April. Reagan and I had many conversations about school. She decided that she would rather be in school. She is ready to give it a go.

Words fail me here. I am beyond proud of her for her decision.
I am so grateful to my husband for pulling her out in October. I know removing her from her surroundings last year was the right move. The Reagan she is today is confident and more self-assured. The Reagan we withdrew from school was struggling and breaking from peer pressure.

She needed an environment where she felt safe to be herself. And homeschool/virtual school gave her exactly that.

So, it is with extreme pride (and quiet, internalized fear) that I get ready to send her back out into the world.

I ordered this awesome book, Farm Anatomy from Barnes and Noble. I also snagged a copy of its sister book Nature Anatomy. A few other homeschooling moms (that I follow obsessively for ideas on Instagram) use the nature one all the time. I'm glad I grabbed the Farm one too though... it has some excellent information about plants in it.

I have always been a fan of project based learning, even when I was teaching in the public school system. In my opinion, it's an excellent way to see what a child has learned. So it should come as no surprise that I incorporate this into our homeschool life.

My kids are obsessed with technology. YouTube is like heroin to them. They get angry and crazy if they go too long without it.

Buddy is actually less-addicted to it than his sister. Rea sometimes exhibits junky-behavior. It's a bit scary.

I have told her that I would rather she play on her iPod, than watch videos of other people playing. Maybe it's a generation thing...

A few months ago (or maybe longer), Rea decided she needed her own website. I thought "what a great idea!" I can teach her to blog, she can write, plan, code. It'd be awesome! So I built this website for her:

And then she wrote ONE post. Ugh.

Rea asked me if she could have her own YouTube page... we have a family one (and 12 whole subscribers - hahahahaha). But apparently, she cannot share with me. I told her I would let her on one condition: she needed to spend time on her website.

Yesterday, we downloaded this app called OSnap! This app is perfect for creating stop-action videos. I put the app on each's iPod. Both kids spent HOURS making videos. HOURS. It was glorious!

They set up their tripods (the ones that came with their Stikbots) and created several videos each.

Rea wrote a post about the app. As promised, she now has her own YouTube page.

If you have a YouTube obsessed child, please consider allowing him/her to subscribe to Rea's page. I know she will be checking (probably constantly). And if you feel like popping over to her site to see the post she wrote today, click here.

We had a series of terrible storms blow through our area last night, including a tornado or three. It was a crazy, stressful, sleepless night.

​I am EXHAUSTED.

At around 1am, my phone beeped with the tornado warning. It said "get up and take cover." (<-- ok, that's a paraphrase.) It did the job though. I was awake. The lightning storm was crazy - quiet, but super bright. The lights woke up Buddy. He pitter-pattered into my room and climbed into my bed.

A few minutes later, my phone beeped. This time, it was my mom. She said I should go watch the TV.

The night unraveled from there.

Buddy and I were downstairs with my parents. The weather guy said there was a tornado in the area. My dad said we were in its path. I went upstairs and grabbed Stu and Rea. We brought pillows and blankets downstairs.

I really didn't know what to expect. I have never been in this situation before. Hurricanes?-No worries. Tornados?-No thank you.